A to­tal of 144 young­sters en­joyed the In­di­an Ar­rival Day hol­i­day by bat­tling over the chess board in the One-Day Ju­nior Rapid Play tour­na­ment held at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Ch­agua­nas. The com­pet­i­tive spir­it dis­played by the young en­thu­si­asts was un­usu­al­ly keen as the tie-break sys­tem had to be used to de­cide fi­nal plac­ings in most of the four cat­e­gories. The an­nu­al event, spon­sored by In­dus Mer­chant Lim­it­ed, record­ed the largest num­ber of play­ers since its in­au­gu­ra­tion eight years ago. Ac­cord­ing to Ved Jan­wani, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of In­dus, the first edi­tion of the tour­na­ment at­tract­ed a to­tal of 30 play­ers and par­tic­i­pa­tion has been grow­ing ever since. The con­test, which of­fered cash prizes and tro­phies for the top three play­ers in each sec­tion, saw Rafael Guer­rero, in a sur­prise re­turn to the game, win­ning the Un­der 20 sec­tion with a per­fect score of five points from five rounds. The tie break­er was used to sep­a­rate Jayson Paul, sec­ond, and Joshua John­son, third, af­ter they both fin­ished on four points.

In the Un­der 14 cat­e­go­ry, Ma­hen­dra Singh of Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Ch­agua­nas, Mikel Mar­tin of Grant Memo­r­i­al Pres­by­ter­ian School and Daniel Bho­la of Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do, end­ed the five-round con­test on four points each. Fol­low­ing ap­pli­ca­tion of the tie break sys­tem, Singh was de­clared win­ner with Mar­tin and Bho­la pick­ing up the sec­ond and third places re­spec­tive­ly. Shan­non Year­wood of St Joseph's Con­vent won the Un­der-12 sec­tion with four and a half points thanks to the tie break­er as Je­re­my Am­mon of Maria Regi­na Grade School al­so fin­ished with the same score. Sean Year­wood of Trin­i­ty Ju­nior School took third place, half a point be­hind. Grant Memo­r­i­al's Nicholas Mo­hammed topped the field of 23 play­ers in the Novices Sec­ond Di­vi­sion, edg­ing out his school­mate Re­ece Singh on the tie break. Both play­ers end­ed on six points from sev­en games. Isaac Pe­gus of Black­man's Pri­vate School was third on five. Kelvin Dover of Moru­ga Chess Club played un­beat­en to win the Novices First Di­vi­sion ahead of a large field of 53 play­ers. Ky­ron Agos­ti­ni and Ami Ali placed sec­ond and third.